Department of Justice

HAMMOND- Milton Leroy Harvey, Jr., 42 years old, of Gary, Indiana, was sentenced by United States District Court Judge Philip P. Simon after a jury found him guilty of being a felon in possession of a firearm, announced United States Attorney Clifford D. Johnson.

Harvey was sentenced to 21 months in prison followed by 1 year of supervised release.

According to documents in the case, on August 1, 2016, law enforcement conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle driven by Harvey in Gary, Indiana. As Harvey retrieved his identification from his pocket, an officer observed a butt of a handgun protruding from Harvey’s waistband which was a loaded semi-automatic pistol with an obliterated serial number. Harvey’s criminal history revealed he has a prior federal felony conviction for possessing with intent to distribute cocaine, which prohibits him from possessing a firearm or ammunition.

This case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Indiana High Intensity Drug Trafficking Task Force and the Gary Police Department. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Kevin F. Wolff and Nicholas J. Padilla.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.